


Timeless

by Tamithna



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Agender Hange Zoë, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Fluff, M/M, Older Eren Yeager, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Rating May Change, Swearing, ererisecretsanta2015, some spoilers if you don't read the manga
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2018-05-09 08:13:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5532182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamithna/pseuds/Tamithna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>2000 years after the Final Battle, a crystallized Eren is woken up by a reincarnated Levi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Emiza](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emiza/gifts).



> This is my [Ereri Secret Santa 2015](http://ererisecretsanta.tumblr.com/) gift for [emiza](http://emiza.tumblr.com/)!  
> I loved your prompt so much that it got out of hand and so it’s going to have multiple chapters. I’m not entirely happy with it but I hope you’ll like it.
> 
> As always, any feedback is appreciated and kudos&comments are very welcomed.
> 
> Happy holidays! :')
> 
> (This is unbeta’d so if there’s any mistake please let me know.)

“Fuck!” Levi’s sneaker slipped on the wet rocks of the ground and he felt himself falling forward. In the darkness of the place, he wasn’t able to find a spot to hold himself and was already biding goodbye to his front teeth when a strong pair of arms grabbed his shoulders, successfully steadying him.

“Are you okay?” Erwin’s voice sounded somewhere on his right, seeming concerned. None of them could see anything and the humid, stale air was giving chills to both of them.

“Yeah, thanks.” He brushed his sweater, heart still racing as he looked around trying to see Hanji in the dark without slipping again. “Hanji, what the fuck happened? I almost fell!”

“Sorry, sorry! I was holding my phone a little too hard and I accidentally turned it off, just wait a minute.” The sound of rustling reached their ears before Hanji spoke again. “Ah, see, here we go!”

The light from their phone’s flashlight illuminated them again and Levi heard Erwin’s shaky sigh of relief, followed by angry words.

“You know what? I’m not going to give one more step forward unless you tell us exactly what’s going on Hanji, this has gone too far.” He made a show of plopping down on the damp floor, legs and arms crossed, and thick eyebrows furrowed.

Levi hesitated, before following his example and regretting wearing those incredibly tight jeans that day, as he tried to make himself comfortable on the hard floor, looking curiously around.

They were currently on and underground cavern on the outskirts of Trost city. The zone was deserted, no one really dared to set foot in there, since it was a common superstition to think that the area was haunted. Some people would go as far as saying that they had heard screams and nails grazing rock coming from the cave but the three of them had always doubted all the bullshit.

Hanji had caught them after class, talking nonstop about some old book and how they had made a huge discovery in their grandfather’s basement and proceeded to drag them to their car, not saying anything else. Like always, they just went along.

“Well, it’s a bit complicated, I was waiting to be sure that we’re _actually_ going to find anything before telling you.” They scratched their nose, looking pensive. “But yeah, okay, I guess you deserve to know.”

They handed their phone to Levi, who kept it pointed at them as they reached for their backpack, pulling out carefully a handful of ancient looking sheets of paper encased on transparent plastic. They sat down, motioning to Levi to give them back the phone.

“So, you know how shady the history of our world is, right? We don’t know why there are remains of enormous walls all around some specific cities and how the cities of the rest of the world are much younger than the enclosed ones, how all the records during a certain period of time simply do not exist.” They adjusted themselves on the hard floor, eyes almost glowing with excitement in the poorly lit room. “What bothers me most is that no one questions this, no one tries to investigate what the hell happened. And the ones who do are called conspiracy theories maniacs and people laugh at them.”

“Alright, it’s weird but we’ve talked about this before, it doesn’t explain why we’re freezing our asses off in an underground cave.” Levi scoffed, bringing his knees to his chest to try and keep warm. From the corner of his eye, he saw Erwin nod in agreement.

“Hold your horses, I’m getting there.” They gently spread the papers in front of them, adjusting their glasses. “I was snooping around on my granddad’s basement again, you know my mom hates when I go there and she wasn’t home so I took the chance. And I found this pages inside an old fairy tale book I had never touched. They have been clearly ripped off another book and guess what they talk about?”

“The time before? You truly found evidence of the time before?” Erwin raised to his knees, almost falling over, blue eyes full of wonder and Levi chuckled looking somewhat skeptical.

“Don’t laugh Levi, I’m being serious. These pages are approximately two thousand years old, I’ve run tests on them myself, and they specifically mention the walls, a subject that normal history books don’t even touch. Look here on this one," they pointed their phone to the paper sheets and both Levi and Erwin got closer, interest taking over them. “The language used is modern, surprisingly, so relatively easy to decipher. The first one starts in the end of an explanation of how the walls were built so we can’t really understand anything without the rest. But here, the second one talks about some creatures called titans, men eating giants created by humanity itself to, uh, how do I put it, “purge” society. They managed to do it but you know humans, stubborn as hell and the survivors built the walls and three factions were created to combat these titans; the Garrison, the Scouting Legion and the Military Police that was later disbanded because of corruption, I think. Later, they discovered that some humans could shift into titans and some of them were on the survivor’s side and it was a great advantage for them.”

Levi and Erwin looked at each other, doubt still nagging them but eyes wide and full of questions. Hanji just kept talking, ignoring the two boys.

“The info here is really incomplete, these are just some pages, but it also says that the titans were eventually defeated by the combined forces of the Garrison and the Scouting Legion. Thousands of soldiers and innocent people died but they finally achieved peace.” Hanji picked up the pages from the floor and got up, smiling faintly. “Apparently, the last titan, a shifter, self-enclosed himself on crystal after the final battle and was taken and kept under the Scouting Legion headquarters, just outside Trost. There’s also a map on the third page, if you know what I mean.”

“You have the location of this person? That’s why we’re here? We’re above of what used to be a military faction that fought against giants? I don’t know if I can believe that.”

“Wait a minute,” Levi got up from the floor as well, interrupting Erwin’s cynicism and taking the moment of silence to stretch his stiff legs. “What do you mean he enclosed himself on crystal? It appeared out of nowhere?”

“Like I said, the info on this pages is very incomplete, I don’t know how anything happens but, apparently, this phenomenon had been observed previously on Annie, a titan shifter who betrayed the humanity that lived inside the walls. She had been defeated and was going to be taken for interrogation, thus under great emotional distress and she enclosed herself on crystal. Maybe to stop herself from talking and possibly giving away information about the people she worked for.”

“Wait, you guys are taking all this way too seriously, there’s no way to know if any of this is real. Maybe we should just head back, it’s too sketchy.”

“Erwin, _there is_ a way of knowing if this is true. We’re only a few meters off the chamber where this supposed titan shifter is. Or used to be. Maybe we’ll at least find some books or maybe we won’t find anything but we can’t just give up.”

Both of them looked at Levi and he just shrugged, sending Erwin an apologetic look. He was usually on his side, Hanji’s ideas and plans typically being outright insane but he couldn’t help the eagerness and curiosity that had been bubbling up on his belly for a while.

“Hanji’s right, what’s the harm? It does sound like the whole thing has been made up but why go back now?

“Fine, _fine_ , but for god’s sake let’s hurry because it’s almost seven and my parents are going to freak out if I’m not home by the time they arrive from work.”

Hanji cackled loudly and slapped his back so violently that it was almost physically possible to see the air leaving Erwin’s lungs as he had to take a step to avoid losing his balance. He sent an extremely offended look at Hanji but they seemed unfazed.

“So that’s what you’re worried about, huh? Don’t worry golden boy, we’ll get you home soon enough.”

“Don’t call me that Hanji, I told y-“

“Hey guys, what about you stop messing around, it’s freezing here, my balls are almost merging with my stomach, let’s just go.”

Hanji let out a muffled “you’re gross” and a snicker but didn’t retort, walking back towards the path they had been following earlier while Erwin grunted something that neither of them could understand.

The more they walked, the more colder the air got and soon they were all shivering, trying to melt with their jackets and keeping close to each other in order to preserve warmth. The ground also became substantially steep, making it harder to walk without slipping.

They kept going for what it seemed an eternity, the overwhelming silence only being broken by water dripping and echoing all around them and the faint sound of their own beating hearts. In reality, they had been walking for less than ten minutes, before the entrance to what seemed a chamber came into their view.

With careful steps and ragged breathing, now using all three of their phones to illuminate their way, they entered the sinister place. There was old, empty bookshelves littering the whole place, some still standing, others on the floor, a few broken chairs and tables.

“What is that?” Erwin pointed to a big lump covered in a ratty white sheet right in the middle of the room.

“I have no idea but what is this?” Levi waved his arms around, signaling the whole place. “This is so creepy, why is a room like this on the underground?”

“Hm, it seems like it was used as some kind of archive.” Hanji passed a hair through their ponytail, eyes fixing on a spot on the furthest wall. “And look, that seems like a door over there so I’m guessing we are below where a building used to be?”

“The headquarters of that Scouting Legion you mentioned?”

“Most likely.”

A shiver went down Levi’s spine; something about the place was unsettlingly familiar though he had never set foot there. He could almost see it as it had been before, candle lights illuminating the place and books and dossiers covering the now empty bookshelves. He got closer to Erwin, casually holding his arm to steady himself and try to ignore the sensations and flashes that seemed to be flooding his mind.

“I don’t like this.” His voice was low and he hoped Hanji and Erwin didn’t notice the slight tremble in his words.

“You feel it too?” Hanji grabbed Erwin’s other arm, their eyes glassy. “This overwhelming sense of déjà vu? Like we have been here before?”

Erwin hummed softly in agreement, and relief washed over Levi. Maybe he wasn’t going crazy after all.

“Guys, let’s see what that big thing is so we can get out of here. There’s no books unfortunately so we’re just wasting our time.”

Hanji lets Erwin's arm fall and gives sure steps towards the thing covered in the sheet with the boys in tow. Each one of them grabbed a tip of the cover, Levi wincing in disgust, and they looked at each other.

“At the count of three,” Erwin cleared his throat and the other two nodded. “One, two…”

They had their breaths hold, Levi’s knuckles were white because of how tight he was holding the sheet and he was pretty certain he could feel sweat running down his back despite the cold.

“Three!”

They yanked the sheet forward at the same time and all of them scrambled back with surprised noises, eyes wide and mouths open.

“What the _fuck_?” Levi couldn't register what his eyes were seeing, the massive see through green crystal in front of them standing in wood logs and with remains of cables around it. There was something inside it and the dark haired boy had to stop himself from rubbing his eyes with his dirty hands.

There was a boy inside it.

Hanji spread their hand on the surface of the crystal, unable to tear their eyes apart and mumbling something that resembled “holy shit” and Erwin had his arm hanging in front of him like he stopped himself before he could touch the smooth surface and couldn’t care about letting it down again.

“I can’t believe that those pages were correct, that terrible past described there actually happened.” Hanji slid their hand down the crystal and Levi could almost swear he could see tears in their eyes. “There’s so much we don’t understand and someone robbed us from knowing the past.”

Erwin shifted his gaze from the crystal to Hanji and placed a big hand on their shoulder, squeezing softly before talking.

“The crystal seems hard, do you think we can use a part of those bookshelves to break it?”

Hanji wiped their eyes and smiled, seeming to go back to their usual energy. “I don’t know, we could try. Levi are you okay?”

“Yeah, just somewhat stunned.”

Hanji nodded and they moved away to find a piece of wood that had not been rotted by time yet. Levi gazed back to the crystal, taking in the distorted features of the boy.

He had his eyes closed, an expression that seemed peaceful and he was wearing something that seemed like an uniform; the brown jacket had some kind of symbol that Levi couldn't make out and there were strange straps all around the boy’s body as well as a mechanism attached to his hips that Levi did not recognize.

The boy’s face seemed soft and Levi was hit by a feeling of nostalgia that he really couldn't place, an overwhelming need to touch the person inside the crystal. Slowly, he brought his fingers to the surface, feeling it cool and smooth.

Before he could process what was happening, the crystal in front of him seemed to start breaching, pieces of it falling to the ground, the top opening and Levi falls back on his butt, heart hammering on his chest.

Hanji and Erwin were startled by the noise and came running and just in time; Erwin managed to catch the unconscious boy before he hit his head on the rocks of the floor.

“What did you do Levi, how did you open it??” Hanji squeaked as Erwin settled the brown haired boy on the floor.

“Fuck, I have no idea, I just touched it and it started cracking.” He got up on his knees and got closer to the boy on the ground, picking up his arm to check his pulse. “He’s alive but we don’t know if he needs medical care, should we call an ambulance or the police?”

“No.” Erwin surprises them with his firm voice louder than usual. “Think about it, someone or a group of people have spent thousands of years to hide the past from humanity, these underground cavern used to be a below a building that was probably huge but there’s no trace of it. And now that I think about it, the rumors of this place being cursed make so much more sense, they were probably planted by the same people who wanted to drown history.” He pushed his hair back, seeming to be trying to find the right words. “Imagine if we do involve the police, _even_ if they believe us we have no idea if there’s someone around who’s still willing to keep things under the rug and if there are, what will happen to us?”

“You’re right but what will we do with him? We can’t just leave him right?” Levi’s eyes jumped from Erwin to Hanji, who seemed to be in deep thought. They opened their mouth, finger in the air and Levi relaxed somewhat, it seemed like they had a plan.

“Well, we could bring him to one of our houses, yours would be easier Levi, your mom works until late and it’s just you two so less chances of someone finding out.” Before Levi can protest, they keep talking. “Tomorrow is not a school day so I can probably convince my parents to let me sleep in your house so we can take care of him and figure everything out.”

“Sounds like a plan, I’ll talk to mine too so I guess we’re having a sleepover at your house Levi.” For the first time since they had gotten out of class that afternoon, a smile makes its way to Erwin’s lips.

“But if he doesn’t wake up in one or two day we’ll have no choice but to take him to the hospital, we’ll come out with a story, we found him on the park or something.”

“All right.” Levi sighed in defeat, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We’ll go to my house before my mo-“

A soft moan coming from the ground alarmed them and they all looked at the boy who seemed to be stirring. Big, ocean green eyes opened softly before widening almost comically before fixating their gaze on Levi’s face. A dirty hand rose slowly and caressed his cheek tenderly and a raspy sigh came out of soft looking lips.

“C-captain Levi.” His arm fell down back and his eyes closed again, leaving the three teenagers with the sensation they had just witnessed a ghost, unable to speak.

“Why did he call me captain and _how on earth did he know my name_?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren wakes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna start by apologizing, this took way too much time to write, and I have a million excuses but none of them will make much sense to you so, I'm sorry! I _promise_ I'll try and update more regularly.  
>  Anyway, thank you so much for all the kudos and comments and for all the patience, I'm really grateful and I hope you enjoy it! :)
> 
> As always, I'm very hungry for kudos&comments, remember to feed me!
> 
> (This is unbeta’d so if you spot any mistakes please let me know.)

“What the fuck was that?!” Levi pointed vigorously with both arms to the boy on the ground in front of them, looking from Hanji to Erwin with wide eyes.

“I have no idea Levi, but probably just a coincidence?” They shrugged, obviously not as fazed as Levi was. 

“Yeah, it’s dark and apparently he has been asleep for more than two thousand years.” Erwin looked sympathetically at him, small smile on his lips. “He probably knew someone with the same name as yours or he was aware when we were talking earlier and heard your name and got confused.”

Levi nodded, taking in a deep breath. There was no other explanation to what had just happened, he was making an unnecessary fuss.

“Come on guys, let’s just go, this cave has a really bad atmosphere, we’re all a bit spooked and we need to get out of here as soon as possible.” Hanji pointed their phone to Erwin who winced with the sudden light in his eyes. “You’ll have to be the one to carry our little titan boy, I doubt me or Levi would be able to pick him up.”

Erwin huffed a little bit but didn’t disagree with them, kneeling next to the boy, trying to figure out how exactly he was going to carry him. 

“I’ll need your help to adjust him on my back, I’ll give him a piggy back ride.”

Hanji motioned Levi to come help them, putting down their phone on the floor once more. Levi was still reluctant to get closer to the boy but he mentally slapped himself, he was being ridiculous, there was absolutely _no way_ the boy knew him.

With a lot of difficulty and muffled cackles from Hanji, they managed to get the boy on Erwin’s back, his arms thrown across his neck and his legs firmly held by Erwin’s arms.

With haste and a lot of desire to get out of the underground cave, they made their way through the narrow rock passages, Hanji leading the way with their phone that was almost running out of battery and Levi behind Erwin, sometimes adjusting the boy’s arms or legs to avoid him falling down.

The outside breeze hit all of them like a brick, chilly but clear, very different from the saturated and stale air from the cave. The sky was already dark, the stars all covered by heavy gray clouds that threatened rain.

They climbed the small hill towards the main road where Hanji had parked their car, all of them glad to be out of the chilling place. It took longer to reach the car because of the increased weight but when they finally spotted Hanji’s white, old and beat up Clio, they all sighed in relief, their feet involuntarily moving faster despite the uneven ground.

Erwin unceremoniously tossed the boy on the back seats as soon as Hanji unlocked the car, huffing the entire time while Hanji scrambled through the trash that was their trunk for a relatively clean blanket.

Levi walked away from them, picking up his phone and dialing his mother’s number. She picked up after two rings, sounding breathless.

_ “Levi? Hi baby, it’s good to hear you.” _

“Hi mom, sorry for calling you while you’re working, I just wanted to know if Hanji and Erwin can spend the night.”

_ “Oh, sure, yeah sure honey, you don’t even have to ask this anymore, they’re already part of the furniture.” _ Kuchel left out a laugh. There was a lot of background noise, pans and metal clanking together and voices shouting.

“Yeah, you’re right, but thank you.”

“ _It’s alright honey, don’t worry. I really need to go; I’ll probably arrive late today, don’t wait for me._ ” Kuchel blew a kiss through the microphone. “ _I love you so much_.”

“I love you too mom.”

He pocketed the phone on his jeans before making his way back to the car where his friends were waiting for him, Hanji’s hands already on the wheel. He got in in the backseat (Erwin always claimed his legs were too long for the cramped space), where the boy was lying, a ratty blanket covering almost his entire body.

Hanji started driving as soon as the door closed. It was a short ride to Levi’s house, in less than twenty minutes they were parking in front of the small house, as light rain started to fall. 

It was another challenge to get the boy out of the car without the neighbors thinking they were moving a dead body into the house. 

They finally made it to Levi’s room, after a lot of yelling and struggling and almost falling out of the stairs.

“Put him on the floor.” Levi points to the rug next to his bed while holding the door open so Erwin could enter.

“Isn’t it better to let him use your bed?”

Levi looked at Hanji with a stern face, his eyebrows knitted together. “We don’t know where he came from and his clothes and face look dirty so I’m not really letting him near my bed before he has a shower, sorry.”

Hanji shrugs while Erwin tries to lay the boy down as carefully as possible, placing his own jacket cushioned as a pillow. He gets up and they all stare down to the floor.

“I really want to know what’s that.” Hanji pointed at the device on the boy’s hip with a curious look.

“I have no idea but it’s heavy as hell, we should have removed it before bringing him here, I’ll have back pain for days.”

“Can we even remove it? How’s it attached?” Levi kneeled next to him, carefully passing a hand through the cold metal.

“I think it has something to do with the straps he has all over his body. Maybe a weapon or something?” They joined Levi on the floor, adjusting their glasses. “I mean, they did kill giants, they must have used something and he looks like he’s wearing a military uniform.”

They could now see the symbol on the brown jacket, a pair of white and navy blue wings overlapping each other. Levi wondered which military faction it corresponded to and silently hoped it was not the one that had been disbanded because of corruption. 

“Yeah, probably, it’s better not to touch it for now. What do you think happened that it was so emotionally heavy that he encased himself in crystal for two goddamn thousand years?” 

Hanji shrugged, getting up from the floor and brushing their jeans. “Must have something awful, I can’t even imagine it. Anyway, do you think he’s dangerous? If he was wrapped in crystal, it means he’s a titan shifter, according to the pages.”

Levi looked pensive for a while, his silver blue eyes focused on the window. “We have no way of knowing so let’s just go with the flow.”

“What do we do now?” Erwin said, appearing somewhat disconcerted, and with a brief look to his friends he figured they all feel the same.

“Let’s wait until he wakes up.”

“ _If_ he wakes up.” Levi spitted bitterly, his eyes drifting to the rain outside his window, falling slowly as if mocking their situation.

“Hey, don’t be pessimist, he did wake up once and he is breathing so let’s just wait; I’ll order pizza, Erwin will pick some sodas from the store and you go take a shower alright?” Hanji squeezed his shoulder in a comforting way, smiling softly, while Erwin picked up his wallet silently.

“Alright, okay, let’s wait but I want pineapple on my pizza.”

“Deal!”

Levi collected his pajamas and clean underwear before heading to the bathroom to follow Hanji’s advice and trying to relax in the shower. 

It was hard to ignore the sleeping boy on Levi’s bedroom floor, now covered with Hanji’s car blanket, but through monopoly games, greasy pizza and more than two bottles of soda, they all managed to pass the night in relative peace.

It was almost two a.m. when the trio finally called it a night, going to brush their teeth in the cramped bathroom, yawning and with droopy eyes.

Levi left the left over pizza on the kitchen’s table along with a pink “<3” post it note, since his mother was working extra shifts at the restaurant. It pained him to watch her so tired all the time, the underneath of her eyes dark, but they didn’t have a choice; Kuchel didn’t let her son work before he graduated high school, wanting him to focus on his studies.

He bid goodnight to his friends, before they all climbed on his double bed, falling asleep almost immediately. 

✦✦✦

Levi couldn’t really understand why he was awake.

He was very comfortable and warm, his face pressed against Erwin’s broad back, with Hanji’s arm thrown around his middle. The always slept together, since they were kids, although the task had become more difficult since all of them had increased in size, but none of them complained.

So, seriously, Levi couldn’t really figure out why he wasn’t still sleeping. He yawned, peeking out to his alarm clock, seeing it was still night.

He closed his heavy eyes again, figuring it was probably Hanji moving that made him wake, and he was almost falling asleep when he heard a groan coming from the floor.

Why was the floor moaning?

He sat up on the bed so quickly he felt dizzy, as all the events of the past day, the boy and the underground chamber, came flushing down.

“Levi, what the fuck?” Hanji grunted, their voice sticky with sleep, rubbing their eyes and also sitting up.

“The floor groaned.”

“What? Jesus, was it a nightmare?”

“No Hanji, the boy, the boy on the floor is groaning.”

They immediately hopped on top of Erwin, who woke up with a surprised “humph!”, trying to reach their glasses and the lamp switch on the bedside table. Erwin looked around very disorientated, blonde hair sticking up in every direction.

The boy was moving, trying to sit up with the help of his hands, green eyes trying to adjust to the sudden light. They all sat in silence on the bed, observing him as he examined the room with a very confused expression.

“Huh, hey?” Hanji was the first one speaking, catching the boy off guard and making him notice them for the first time since he had opened his eyes. He got on his feet as quickly as his wobbling body allowed him, eyes jumping from Erwin to Levi to Hanji, wide and scared.

“Calm down, we won’t hurt you.” Hanji calmly got out of the bed, their hands up and Erwin and Levi exchanged looks. “Can you speak?”

He nodded, the same expression no leaving his face. “Where the hell am I? What’s going on?” His voice was deep but sounded raspy and unused. His eyes had a growing panic in them.

“We’re in my house, you’re safe.” Levi followed Hanji’s example and got out of the bed.

“Your house? Levi, you were dead!” The boy shouted, gripping the wood of the closet’s door like a madman. Levi felt his heart drop to his feet, a wave on nausea on his stomach. He must have looked bad, because Erwin gripped his shoulder, as if telling him he was there. 

“Commander Erwin too! You died on Shiganshina, we couldn’t save you!” His words were now laced with tears that kept streaming out of his eyes, dropping continually to his cheeks. “What’s going on here, am I dead?”

Hanji reached for the tissues on the bedside table and cautiously extended the box to the boy. “Please calm down, we’ll explain what happened. Can you tell me your name?”

“Fuck, you don’t even know my name? Shit, fuck, what the fuck, Hanji, it’s me!” He gripped the box, plucking out some tissues and furiously wiping his nose.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t really know your name.” Their smile was sad as they took the box back.

“I’m Eren. Eren Jaeger of the 104th trainee squad.” He brought his right arm to his chest, above the heart, and the other to his back, in some kind of salute and Levi felt a pang on his heart.

He couldn’t really understand why but the overwhelming sense of nostalgia was back. He looked at Erwin, who still had his hand on his shoulder, and his face was pure white, completely mortified.

“It’s nice to meet you Eren.” They sat on the bed and mentioned the desk’s chair to Eren. “So, we don’t know how you know our names but everything is freaking us out a little to be entirely honest with you. Let me just explain what happened alright?”

Eren nodded reluctantly again, still clutching to the paper tissue and Levi was really glad he had stopped yelling, his mother needed as much peace and quiet as she could get. While Hanji explained the whole story, he went down to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water and a sandwich since he figured Eren would be hungry.

It was also a nice excuse to get out of the room that had become too suffocating because there was literally a 2000 years old boy, called Eren, sitting at his desk, that they had found inside a crystal in an underground abandoned military facility.

Levi still wondered if he was dreaming or something had happened to him that made him fall into a deep illusion but he kept making the tuna and mayo sandwich, vaguely pondering if Eren liked or even if he knew what tuna or mayo was. Just in case, Levi added a chicken one too.

When he returned to the room, Hanji was finishing the story and Erwin had returned to sitting on the bed, feigning interest on the loose thread on Levi’s blanket. Eren hadn’t moved a centimeter, still sitting at the desk with his eyes wide open, fixed on Hanji.

“And that’s basically it.” They sighed, adjusting the glasses on their face. “We’d like to hear what happened to you, if you don’t mind.”

“Eat first, talk later.” Levi interrupted them, putting the plate and the bottle down on the desk and making Eren jump a little.

“Thank you.” Came the mumbled response, followed by a suspicious look to the sandwiches. He picked the tuna one carefully with the napkin, smelled it and scrunched his nose up. “What is this?”

“Tuna and mayo.” Eren kept looking at him. “It’s a fish and a dressing made of vinegar and eggs. It also has some veggies, tomato, lettuce and other stuff.”

Eren was still looking at him and Levi heard Hanji snicker.

“Just taste it, alright?”

“Okay.” He took a tiny, uncertain bite out of the sandwich, followed by a bigger one. “Oh, it’s good.” 

They all waited Eren finished devouring the sandwiches in an awkward silence, avoiding crossing gazes with each other. When he was done, he wiped his mouth and all three of them looked expectantly to him.

“Well, I was in battle when everything happened. It was actually supposed to be an expedition, we were following in the beast’s footsteps, but the more we walked, the more titans appeared. They were everywhere around us, surrounding us and I was in my titan form trying to clear a path for the rest of the soldiers.” Hanji held their breath and Erwin came out of his trance, moving forward on the bed, next to Levi. 

“There were not a lot of us, we had been wiped out on the battle with the beast and obviously we didn’t have a lot of recruits.”

“Armin still refused to transform into a titan so I was doing most of the work so everyone could move forward. In the middle of the confusion I heard a scream and I,” He wiped the tears that had been forming with the mayo stained napkin. “I looked back and someone, someone very important to me, was lying on the grass all mauled and blood stained, dead. And that’s the last thing I remember, I must have encased myself on crystal.”

“And now, I wake up to discover that none of that fucking mattered because none of you know about we went through. The life of every damn soldier that died making protecting the world has been erased as it never existed.” He got up and started pacing around the room, not bothering to dry up the new tears now falling freely off his cheeks.

“We’re very sorry Eren, we don’t understand this either.” Erwin spoke for the first time since he had woken up, voice surprisingly steady but skin still white as a chalk. “That’s what drove us to find that cave with the pages Hanji found. We want to understand what happened.”

“Yeah, he’s right, but that still doesn’t explain how you know our names.” Hanji agreed with a nod.

Eren sat down again and looked at lap, hands fidgeting.

“That’s because you have the same names and look exactly like the people I knew except a little younger.” He pointed at Erwin. “Erwin Smith, the 13th commander  of the Scouting Legion, a well-respected person, an excellent strategist, he never hesitated in sacrificing someone to protect humanity or to achieve his goals. Despite that, he was kind and a good friend. He lost his right arm in battle but never stopped fighting until his death on the battle with the beast titan.”

Eren pointed to Hanji.

“Zöe Hanji, preferred being called Hanji, was a former squad leader and later, the 14th commander. They were considered somewhat eccentric but they were passionate and a brilliant scientist. One of the best persons I’ve ever met. They lost the vision of their left eye but they were still alive when I encased myself in crystal.”

Eren spared a brief glance to Levi but didn’t meet his eyes.

“Levi Ackerman, captain of the Scouting Legion, also known as Humanity’s Strongest Soldier because of his mesmerizing fighting skills. He used to be a thug on the underground before Erwin recruited him for the Scouting Legion.” He got up again, focusing on the mechanism on his hips, and tinkering with them, efficiently removing them and placing them down. “Levi was also the person I saw dead before turning into crystal, he was a very good friend. I didn’t expect my reaction to be so strong that I would encase myself though.”

Levi moved on the bed, uncomfortable with the revelation, unsure about how he should react. He clumsily coughed, feeling his cheeks warm against his will and blaming himself for being embarrassed in a situation like that.

“That’s very weird and I can’t find a logical explanation.” Hanji got up, expression on their face way too serious for the cute bunnies pajamas they were wearing. “I mean, it’s logical that we were able to find Eren since he was encased in a crystal that somehow sustained his body for approximately two thousand years but it doesn’t make sense that we’re identical to the people who lived in that era. Are we the only ones who are like this or is everyone right now a doppelganger of someone who lived in the year 853, the same year when Eren transformed?”

“Maybe it has something to do with reincarnation?” Erwin popped in, shrugging and yawning at the same time. “It doesn’t really matter, does it? I mean, Eren’s here right now, we have to think about the future, what we’re going to do from now on.”

“Erwin, reincarnation is not scientifically possible.”

“Sure Hanji, but surviving inside a goddamn crystal is totally scientific.” Levi retorted while Erwin nodded behind him. They seemed to had forgotten Eren was still in the room, standing awkwardly by the door. Hanji opened their mouth to counter but Levi raised his hand. “Erwin’s right though, we need to think about what we need to do. Not today because it’s nearly four a.m. and I’m exhausted with a capital E so let’s just –“

He was interrupted by a low chuckle and all of them looked at Eren at the same time with perplexed faces.

“I’m sorry but you three look exactly like the versions I knew.” His smiled was sad and he was almost in tears again.

“We’re not them.” Levi stood up and his voice was firm. “We’re not them so there’s no reason to compare us like that. I’m going to take you to the bathroom so you can shower and tomorrow we’ll talk about this again.” He grabbed a pillow and threw it to Erwin who, because of his sleepy condition, was too slow to protect himself and caught it directly to the face. “You two go to bed, sleep tight.”

“Aw, fine, see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, goodnight.”

Eren mumbled a “bye” and followed Levi out of the room and into the bathroom.

“Do you know how a shower works?” He gestured to the faucet with his hand.

“Yeah, I think so, we ha those too.”

“Okay, I’ll get you a towel and some clean clothes, I can’t promise they’ll fit you perfectly but they should be good enough for now.” He rummaged on the cabinet below the sink, until he found a plastic bag. “Put your dirty clothes in here and I’ll wash them tomorrow.”

“All right.”

“Okay, good, I’ll pick up the towel.”

Levi turned around to exit the bathroom when a hand clasped his forearm lightly, just to release it a second later like it had burned itself. Levi looked at Eren puzzled.

“Sorry, it’s just, I’m really sorry for making you guys uncomfortable earlier, for comparing you to the people I once knew, it was not my intention.”

“It’s okay.” Levi smiled softly, feeling very self-conscious in his white and light blue pajamas. “I can’t even imagine what you must be going through, all the shit that’s probably going on in your head. So, don’t worry about it.”

Eren and smiled for the first time since they had met and turned around to begin undressing. They didn’t really talk much after that, Levi dropped off some clothes at the bathroom for him to wear, avoiding looking to the semitransparent shower curtains. 

He prepared a sleeping bag full of warm blankets and pillows on the floor of his room, carefully not to wake up Hanji and Erwin, before climbing to the bed, and arranging himself against Hanji’s chest, pulling their arm across his chest.

It was not for another twenty minutes that Eren returned to the room, silently, and tucked himself on the sleeping bag.

Levi had trouble falling asleep again but he wasn’t the only one; the whole time, he was able to see the faint moonlight that passed the open slits of the blinds, reflected on Eren’s green eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something about Eren and toasters, the ocean and tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look who didn't take 2 billion years to update!!  
> I wrote this while listening to Sailor Moon's OST on repeat and crying at the same time, please go easy on me.
> 
> As always, any feedback is appreciated and kudos&comments are very welcomed.
> 
> (This is unbeta’d so if there’s any mistake please let me know.)

Levi woke up with his phone’s alarm clock going off, at 7:30 a.m., and he messily felt around the bedside table, attempting to reach it. He had forgotten to turn it off, since it was Saturday and he had no reason to wake up so early. He dropped his arm on his face, ready to hear Hanji’s protests, having woken up at ungodly hours, as they always put it.

But the complaints never came and he got suddenly aware of how cold his bed was at his sides and he finally opened his eyes. There was no one in the room, Hanji’s glasses were gone and the sleeping bag was a mess of blankets and pillows.

Levi didn’t even bother getting dressed, he went to the bathroom to wash his face and just threw on his big, fluffy, blue housecoat, before sleepily going down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Before he could get very closer, the sound of Hanji’s loud voice reached Levi; they were excitedly talking about something to do with electricity and he figured they were probably explaining Eren how things worked.

“Good morning.” He mumbled sleepily, dropping on the chair and making all of them jump on their seats.

“Jesus, you have feet made of cotton, warn us next time.” Erwin poured a cup of coffee, placing it in front of Levi. “Just how you like it, three spoons of sugar.”

“Fuck off.” Was the muttered response.

“Levi, I was just explaining Eren how things work!” They stuck a whole piece of toast in their mouth, munching quickly. “Can you believe they didn’t even have electricity, the only thing Eren recognizes is the plumbing system.”

“Everything is so different from what I remember, literally every little thing.” His eyes were open wide again, in that expression that was almost comical.

“He got scared by the toaster going off.” Erwin chuckled, seeping his tea calmly and Eren sent him a chilling look.

They were interrupted by Hanji’s phone ringing and vibrating noisily on top of the table and they rolled their eyes before picking it up.

“Why did you guys wake up so early anyway?” Levi was putting way too much cheese and ham on his bread, defying Erwin’s critic gaze.

“It was my fault, I touched the switch on the wall when I woke up to go to the bathroom and I had no idea that whole room was going to light up.” Eren hid his face on his milk mug.

“How didn’t I wake up?”

“You were in a pretty heavy sleep, you seemed really tired so we just let you rest.” Erwin crossed his leg, yawning and leaning back.

“Careful, that’s the bad chair, you’re going to fall.” he quickly moved forward on the chair, propping his feet firmly on the floor.

Hanji finally hung up the phone, sitting down again, letting their head drop on their arms, pouting a bit and trying to reach the bread crumbs on the table with their tongue.

Erwin passed a hand fondly through their hair, unknotting their strands. “What’s wrong?”

“Grandma wants me to take her shopping, I was really planning to spend the day with you guys.”

“We can have lunch together.” Levi finished stuffing his mouth with the rest of his sandwich, chewing with difficulty.

“Nah, you know how Nana is, it’s going to take up the whole day, plus more probably.” They lightly tapped Erwin’s hand and put their hair up on the usual ponytail. “I got like half an hour to be there so if you want a ride Erwin, it’s better to go get dressed.”

“Alright, but what are we going to do?” he looked at Eren, who seemed alarmed to be suddenly on the spotlight again, since they seemed to had forgotten about him.

“Please, if I’m being a bother I’ll just go, I’ll find a place to sleep, I have things I want to do too, no need to worry about me, you have been very generous alre-”

“You got scared because of a toaster.” Levi said flatly and Hanji snickered.

“Yea, what about it?” his voice was defensive and his eyebrows were furrowed.

“He means that you’re not being a bother at all and that if you don’t even know how a toaster works, how will you be able to go out and figure out a place to sleep?”

“Well, I, well, I guess… I guess I can’t do that.”

“Exactly.”

“Okay, we’ll be staying here, when my mom arrives I’ll say he’s a friend from school or something that was kicked out of his house.”

“Good then! Let’s go before Na gets angry because if that happens I’ll have to listen to her through the whole day.”

There was a mess of shoes and jackets for the next fifteen minutes, Hanji yelling from the bottom of the stairs, telling Erwin to hurry up while Levi didn’t even seem fazed, doing the dishes from the breakfast. Eren just kept sitting at the table, not knowing what to do.

Hanji and Erwin finally left with rushed “Bye!” and “I’ll text you!”, before Erwin had to go back to retrieve his forgotten backpack.

Eren and Levi barely spoke until the latter was done with the dishes. He sat down at the table again, avoiding Eren’s eyes that were all over him.

“Do you want to do something? Go somewhere? Mom won’t be home until one in the afternoon or around that time.” He placed his hands on the table, playing with the lace of the tiny tea-cloth Kuchel insisted on having on the table center, with an empty fruit bowl on top.

“Your mother works a lot.”

“Yeah, it’s like we don’t have much of a choice, she doesn’t want me to work until I finish my studies and since we don’t have a lot of money, she’s always working extra time.”

Eren seemed surprised at his words. “Your studies? How old are you?”

“Hm, seventeen. Hanji is eighteen and Erwin is almost nineteen, he entered school a year later because his parents travelled a lot before settling here. I’m the youngest because my birthday’s only on-.”

“25th December.” Levi’s eyebrows shot up. “Yeah, same as the Levi I knew. Things just keep getting weirder.”

“Well, anyway, we’re in the last year of high school.”

“High school? Is that a school for important people?”

Levi laughed. “No, it’s called high school because it’s the last level of obligatory school. You have the kindergarten for little kids up to five years old, primary school lasts four years, for kids ages six to nine. Then there’s basic school level one, that lasts two years, basic school level two, lasts three years. When you’re fourteen or fifteen you start high school, that lasts three years.”

“That seems awfully complicated. Do you learn different things in all the years or is always the same thing?”

“You get the hang of it pretty quickly and of course, everything’s different.” Levi got up and brushed his housecoat. “But enough of this talk, you didn’t answer me, do you want to do something today?”

Eren seemed very shy suddenly, quickly averting his eyes from Levi’s and started fidgeting with his hands. “I was going to ask you something, but it might seem silly.”

“What?”

“I, huh, I actually wanted to know if there’s something that resembles a big, so big that you can’t see its end, lake filled with salt water.”

“You mean the ocean? Yeah, we can go, but it’s winter and it’s a lot colder at the beach. We’ll also have to catch the subway.”

“But it exists? And it’s called ocean?” His eyes were sparkling, a million stars enclosed in them and dreams spilling out.

“You have never seen the ocean? Never been to a beach?”

His eyes darkened; it was amazing how much emotion he was able to demonstrate on his eyes alone. “We lived bounded in three big walls, we only had a river and a small lake and only the rich could access it. It was Armin’s, my best friend, dream to see the ocean, he discovered a book on his grandfather’s house that talked about the wonders of the outside world; giant lakes with salty water, flaming water, lands made of ice, and fields of sand.”

“It sounds horrible, living like cattle.” Levi tightened his jacket around him, smiling sympathetically at Eren. “But now you’re free.”

“Yeah.” He looked down at his lap. “I wonder if Armin ever saw the ocean.”

Levi didn’t know how to reply, he was not very good at consoling people so they just stayed in silence for a while, Levi dropping his weight from one feet to another.

“Let’s get dressed, I’ll borrow you some clothes.”

Eren nodded and got up, following Levi to his room, where he desperately tried to find clothes that would fit the taller, more muscled boy. He found some jeans that were big on him and just a little bit tight on Eren, along with a loose hoodie. Levi’s shoes didn’t fit though so he wore his thigh high boots with a parka that was actually Kuchel’s and a fluffy white scarf.

They were ready to leave in less than thirty minutes, both warm and cozy on their clothes and they finally left the house.

Everything was new to Eren, he pointed at everything and asked so many questions. It was funny to see him look at the cars, like they were monsters ready to attack, and Levi had to thoroughly explain that they were just vehicles. The tall building of the city were another wonder; he kept saying it was impossible to make those without the help of titan shifters and, once again, Levi launched in an explanation about how modern construction worked.

The weather was very cold and the skies were gray, but it was not raining and they reached the subway station pretty quickly. Eren asked what the big, strange caterpillar looking thing was; Levi told him it was also a vehicle that moved along rails and showed him everything, telling him the details, seeing Eren’s fascinated face.

The subway was packed when they got in, and after five minutes, Levi could tell Eren was becoming anxious, it was obvious he was not used to that many people in a closed space. Levi tried shielding him against the window but it was in vain since he wasn’t very tall and he settled for hoping they would reach their destination soon.

Luckily, the ride was actually very quick and they shortly arrived at the small port town, with its neutral and bright colors and its strong smell of fish and salt. Levi led Eren with ease through the busy streets, full of merchants selling their fresh catch, not bothered by the light rain, and into the narrow path that lead directly to the street in front of the beach. He noticed Eren turning his head faster than humanly possible, trying to take in all the sights, the colors, the strange people.

When the sandy field finally came into view, not obstructed by the houses and buildings anymore, followed by the never-ending ocean, Eren completely stood still, without warning. Levi continued walking for a while, before noticing he was actually alone and looked back, seeing the boy just standing on the sidewalk. His face was a mix of powerful emotions, and most of them Levi couldn’t even begin to understand; there was wonder and pain, along with disbelief and indignation.

Tears had begun welling on the corner of his eyes and Levi averted his gaze, trying to give him some privacy, and focused on the waves, realizing how much they reminded him of the color of Eren’s eyes.

The irony, someone who had never seen the ocean yet had it trapped on their eyes.

More than five minutes passed before Eren moved again, wiping his tears on the sleeve of his jacket, the people that went by looking curiously, some concerned, to the two of them.

He nodded softly to Levi and he took it as a go-ahead to keep on walking. They crossed the street, in silence, Levi still unsure of what to do, into the pier. There was no one at the beach, the cold, the rain and the strong wind that sent sand everywhere keeping people away from the place.

Levi sat down in the sand and started unlacing his boots and Eren looked at him slightly confused, voice still somewhat clogged.

“What are you doing? It’s cold.”

“I know but there’s this unspoken rule that you always have to take off your shoes at the beach.” He stuffed his socks on his boots and buried his feet on the cold sand, suppressing a shiver. “Plus the sand feels good on your skin, makes it soft.”

The other boy still looked unconvinced but joined him on the sand, taking a hand full and let it seep through his fingers before unzipping his boots.

“What do people do at beaches?”

Levi thought for a while. “Well, in the summer people like to tan on the sand or to swim on the ocean. Some people sleep under a parasol, others read books, the kids do sand castles and others play games. There’s also ice cream sellers all over the place. At nights, there’s also those who like to stargaze.”

“Ice cream?”

“You don’t know what ice cream is?” Levi stared at him incredulous.

“If I knew what it was I wouldn’t be asking.” Eren rolled his eyes, sounding exasperated.

“Sorry, it’s just hard to imagine you’ve never tasted ice cream before.” Levi took his phone out of his pocket and searched for a bit before handing it to Eren. “Ice cream is this amazing sweet frozen dessert made with milk and other flavors like strawberries, vanilla, anything you want.”

“Looks delicious, I would love to try it.” He was holding his phone like it was a precious stone and gave it back to Levi.

“I’ll convince mom to buy some.” Levi got up and shook the sand out of his jeans before grabbing his boots. “Come on, let’s go for a walk.”

Eren did the same and followed Levi down the beach, closer to the water. He seemed to have calmed down, looking more serene and asking a lot of questions; “what’s beyond the ocean?” or “how deep is it?”, some so complicated that Levi wasn’t really able to answer them.

They walked until they reached quieter zone, where there were only a few scattered houses and no cars passing on the streets, sometimes bending down to pick up pretty shells. They sat down again, this time closer to the water, listening to the birds above their heads, Levi hugging his knees and watching the waves crashing, Eren playing with the sand with a stick.

“Hey.”

“Hmm?” Levi leaned back on his hands, stretching his legs.

 “I, uh, wanted to ask you something.” Eren stopped moving the sand around and threw the stick to the side.

“You can ask.”

“What am I going to do now? I can’t live at your house forever, I don’t even know if your mother will react well.”

“My mom has a heart of gold, as I said before I’ll just tell her you’re a friend from school.”

“But I’m older than you. I’m twenty years old, I can’t go to the same school as you.”

“It doesn’t matter, I’ll improvise. We won’t let you go alone, plus you said you had things you wanted to do and you can’t do them alone. Not right now anyway.”

“I-, I don’t know what to say.” Eren sniffled and Levi put a cold hand on his shoulder.

“We’re with you.”

“You sound exactly like him.” His smile was wet, tears flowing again softly.

“Like… like the Levi you knew?”

“Yes.”

Levi searched around on his pocket and retrieved a packet of tissues, handing them to Eren. “Can you tell me about him?”

He blew his nose and wiped his tears, his smile going soft. “He was the most selfless person I ever knew. He suffered a lot throughout his whole life, lost his mother when he was four years old, abandoned by his uncle when he was ten. Lived on the underground, a place where sunlight didn’t reach, meant for poor people and thugs, for most of his childhood.”

“Despite everything he was strong, found a family, but they left them too, dead at the hands of the titans. He was a good fighter, probably the best, and he was recruited by Erwin Smith to the Scouting Legion. He dedicated the rest of his life to the military and died because of it.”

Eren paused, smashing the sand around him in his hands, anger bubbling up. “He was my idol when I was a kid and I met him when I was fifteen, when I joined the military; he was thirty-four and I was part of his squad. He seemed unapproachable at first, everyone was afraid of him. We didn’t start off in the best way but we went through a lot, and I mean _a lot of stuff_ , together. He was sweet and funny, caring, and he loved tea.”

“Was he your best friend? You seem to have been very close.”

“He was my boyfriend, actually.”

Levi chocked in his own saliva, face growing hot and he rapidly moved his head to the side, coughing a bit. He heard Eren chuckle.

“He used to that a lot too, he got really embarrassed easily.”

“I’m not embarrassed, I had sand in my mouth, it’s really windy.” The other boy muttered a “sure” and Levi pretended he hadn’t heard. “Anyway, wasn’t he a lot older than you?”

“It didn’t matter, we risked our lives every day, _every fucking day_. We could be alive in one second and death on the next. To the military folk, things like age and gender didn’t matter.” He let himself fall backwards, onto the damp sand. “We were only side eyed by the nobles and those who lived comfortably inside the walls. But they didn’t matter, I loved him. I still do.”

“Do I really look like him that much?”

Eren focused his eyes in Levi’s, admiring his features. “Yes, younger, but you look exactly like him, from the blue eyes that sometimes turn gray, to the black, soft hair. He was a lot more muscled but that’s about it. Even your haircut is the same.”

“This must be really upsetting to you, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, nor Hanji’s or Erwin’s. I just want to understand what’s going on.”

“We do too, this is as confusing for us it is for you.”

“Yeah.”

They didn’t talk anymore, they didn’t need to, they just sat there looking at the ocean, feeling the cold sand beneath and the icy wind on their hair. Levi liked to observe Eren when he wasn’t looking, trying to discern his thoughts, whatever that was going through his head. He wanted to know what he was feeling, to understand what he had been through, the world where he had once lived in, so nostalgic to Levi, yet so foreigner.

When Levi picked his phone again, he was surprised to see it mark almost midday, more than three hours having passed since they had arrived.

He poked Eren on his arm. “We have to go, we’re having lunch with my mom, she’ll be home soon.”

They older boy looked suddenly nervous but nodded and got up, picking up his shoes. Levi continued, “Don’t worry, she really is nice and she’s an amazing cook, she’ll win you over with homemade food, trust me. I’ll also text her to buy some ice cream on the way home.”

“Thank you Levi, I don’t know how to thank you enough for what you've been doing.”

“Thank me when you taste my mom’s meatballs.” He smiled, as they started making their way back. “On the other hand, you’ll hate us when get to listen to Hanji talking about science, they get really excited and talk very loudly; or when Erwin starts his lecture about economic strategy, even his parents tell him to live a little.”

“I’m sure you won’t believe me when I say I’m looking forward to it, but I am.”

Levi smiled widely and gave him a friendly pat on his back. “I do Eren, I do believe you.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren feels like giving up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, it has been 84 years already and I'm so, so sorry.  
> Life has been seriously hard on me (as you'll be able to tell when you read the chapter, ah aha) and I've been struggling a lot to write. You can send me a message on tumblr about this if you want!  
> This chapter is seriously short, specially considering how much time I took to update, I'm sorry again!! But!! special thanks to [Icy](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Icecat45/) for helping me make up my mind about some stuff in the chapter!!  
> I've also been playing an unholy amount of Dragon Age and I've written the whole chapter listening to the soundtrack and crying.
> 
> As always, any feedback is appreciated and tiny reminder I live off comments.
> 
> (This is unbeta’d so if there’s any mistake please let me know.)

They took a lot more time getting home than they had getting to the beach since Eren asked him if there was a place where he could find books about the modern world. Levi’s first thought was the library but they had to go home soon so they ended up visiting a tiny bookshop next to the subway station; maybe he could take him to the library on another day. He was quite fascinated with all the different books, both fiction and non-fiction, staring at the covers, almost afraid to touch. Levi ended up buying him two books that were on sale because nobody wanted them, with dust already gathered on top of them, one about the history of the world and another about the oceans (“there’s more than one?!” Eren had asked, his eyes wide as saucers).

They got out of the store with a very pleased looking Eren, with the paper bag held firmly under his arm and with Levi’s wallet, that was not very full to begin with, even emptier. He didn’t really mind though, if it meant he could see Eren with a lighter step, not looking as disheartened has he had on the beach. 

The ride was also easier, the subway not as packed as it had been in the morning and they sat down on the seats next to the window, scenery flying by outside and once again, they barely spoke.

The instant Levi opened the front door, a strong smell of food greeted them, the warmth of the air inviting them in. They could hear someone humming in the kitchen and Levi smiled into his scarf; he loved when his mother was in a good mood. They took off their jackets and hung them on the coat rack by the door before Levi signaled Eren to come with him to the kitchen. He could almost hear him gulping.

“Hi mom.” He walked to his mother, placing an arm on her shoulder, pretending he didn’t have to stretch a little to reach her comfortably.

“Hey baby, where have you been?” She leaned down to kiss his forehead, without noticing the petrified boy on the other side of the room. “And what’s with the ice cream, you don’t usually like it on winter and you didn’t even tell me what flavor you wanted.”

Levi laughed, glancing at Eren, who smiled timidly. “Did you buy it?”

“Yep, chocolate and salted caramel, your favorite.” She opened the pan and peeked inside before tasting the sauce.

“Thank you.” He stayed in silence while his mother added salt to the food. ”Mom? There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Did something happen?” She looked at him, seeming worried, hand hovering on top of the wooden spoon, before finally looking around and noticing Eren, who raised a hand in a half assed greeting. “Oh, and who are you?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” Levi interrupted, talking quickly, before Eren could pronounce a word. “This is Eren, he’s a, huh, friend and he has nowhere to stay. He was kicked out of the house where he was living.”

Kuchel looked at her son with a raised eyebrow before cleaning her hands on the apron she was wearing and strolling down the tiny kitchen, offering Eren a hand and an easygoing, yet calculating smile.

“Hello, my name is Kuchel.”

Eren accepted her hand and Levi could tell he was a nervous wreck. “I’m Eren, it’s nice to finally meet you ma’am, Levi told me a lot about you.”

She seemed surprise. “He did?”

“Only good things.”

“I see. Well, he certainly never told me anything about you,” Her gaze flipped to Levi and he noticed mischief in her eyes. “You’re telling me Eren doesn’t have anywhere to stay?”

“Yes, he was fired recently and he lost his apartment, his landlord was an asshole.” Levi tried his best to sound credible, adding little details and avoiding scratching his nose, since his mother always told him he did that when he lied. “I was wondering if he could live with us for a while?”

“You don’t have any family, nowhere to stay at all?” She looked at Eren once again, and Levi sent him a desperate hand signal, telling him to make something up. 

“My parents died when I was young and I really don’t know where my sister is.” He was fidgeting with the hem of the hoodie he had on and something about his expression told Levi he was actually telling the truth. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to impose, I can find someplace else.”

“It’s okay Eren, I just wanted to know who you are since apparently you’ll be staying here.” Kuchel stretched to ruffle his hair before turning her back to the boys to continue cooking. Eren smiled brightly to Levi that, in turn, raised his thumb.

“Are your things here already? Clothes? Do you need to store anything in the garage?” Kuchel continued, chopping onions. Eren’s panicked look made a full come back.

“I- I actually don’t have anything with me.”

“Asshole landlord.” Levi reminded her, as if it justified the fact that he didn’t have any spare underwear with him. 

“Yeah, he didn’t let me to take anything with me.”

“That’s why you’re wearing Levi’s clothes? I didn’t know it was that bad, god, I’m really sorry.” Kuchel looked over her shoulder and pointed the knife she was holding to Eren, who visibly shrunk. “We’ll go to that good will shop tomorrow, they have really cheap, second hand clothes that will fit you. Levi is a lot smaller than you, and that can’t be comfortable.” She pointed to the jeans he was wearing that clung to his legs. 

“I really don’t know how to thank you.”

“If you want to thank me, grab a chair and sit beside me. I want to know more about you. Levi, set the table, lunch is almost ready.”

Levi mumbled something that neither of them heard and continued to the bathroom to wash his hands before setting the table. He almost forgot to put three sets of cutlery and plates, before remembering Eren, and his heart did a weird fluttering thing he couldn’t quite understand.

After the initial stiffness between the three of them, Kuchel managed to make Eren at ease, making him talk more openly than he had before with Levi, Hanji or Erwin.She asked him questions about his life or his friends, where he had met Levi and it was unexpected how well he answered, adapting his sentences to match the “modern” world. Levi could still tell that he stuttered on some sentences, probably trying to remember details that were fresh on his memory but he guessed it was only because he knew the truth about the boy.

“Huh, Kuchel? I don’t mean to sound rude, and I definitely appreciate what you’re doing, but wasn’t it too easy?” Eren set his fork down, his intense eyes focused on the woman in front of him; Levi stopped chewing in the middle of a bite to watch.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, you said it was okay for me to live here without even thinking twice.”

Her eyes glinted with something neither Levi nor Eren could understand. “If there’s something you need to know about me is that I trust my son and, if he trusts you, I trust you.” She smiled, a crooked smile filled with riddles, her eyes heavy. Levi still had food on his mouth and Eren shot him a wide eyed look.

“Anyway, I also know what it’s like to need help and not have it so, you’re welcome!” her demeanor completely changed and she grabbed the pot to dump more food on Eren’s plate without even asking. Levi finally swallowed and hid his laughter on the napkin.

The rest of the lunch passed by relatively easy, Eren eating so much he almost said no to the ice cream. But he still ate a bowl and his bright green eyes lit up; Levi was sure that he would have inhaled a whole carton if he hadn’t been so full. 

He ended up helping Levi with the dishes, while Kuchel excused herself for a nap, eyes tired and drooping, dark circles even more pronounced than earlier. Levi knew that no matter how playful and happy she seemed, she was truly drained, and he watched her go, bottom lip wedged between his teeth in worry. But he didn’t say anything about it.

\---

The whole afternoon was very slow; Levi sat on his desk, fighting to concentrate on his homework while Eren eagerly read the books Levi had given him, sprawled out on the sleeping bag on the floor. Levi had thoroughly taught Eren how to search for information on the internet browser of his laptop, that now laid next to him on the blankets. Levi could, sometimes, hear the careful and slow typing that meant that Eren was using it.

If Levi was going to be brutally honest with himself, the whole situation felt somewhat awkward and a million thoughts kept racing on his head. He had considered calling Hanji and Erwin to join him; Hanji always knew what to say and Erwin was a calming and safe presence. But on second thought, it would be selfish of him and he refrained from touching his phone. Besides, Hanji was probably still being dragged around by their grandmother.

He caught himself staring at the window again, instead of doing the essay he should have been writing, pencil hanging useless between his relaxed fingers, the other hand holding his chin while his blurred eyes kept fixed on the cat outside that was calmly licking its paw on a dry patch of ground.

“You’ve been like that for a while, are you okay?” Eren’s voice snapped him out of his daydreaming and startled him.

“Just sleepy, can’t really concentrate.”

“My mom always told me it’s not good to force yourself to do something when you’re unable to concentrate no matter how much you try. So it’s better to do something else with your time and go back to your previous task when you feel more capable.”

“That sounds like great advice until you realize you’ll never want to do shit so you’ll have to end up forcing yourself anyway.”

Eren laughed at that, turning his head to the books again. “Well, you also have to have some kind of self-discipline right?”

“I guess.” Levi dropped the pen on top of the multiple sheets of paper littering his desk and rubbed his eyes. “But I think you may be right.”

“Do you want to come over here?”

Levi looked at Eren, sitting with his legs crossed, wearing clothes that barely fit him and pronounced dark circles under his eyes. He had cried on the beach and while he did seem composed, his eyes showed something that Levi couldn’t quite get.

“Okay.” He slowly got up from the chair and sat down on the blankets, mimicking Eren’s crisscrossed legs.

Eren pointed to the computer and the books with his hand. “Your world is weird.” His eyes weren’t focused on anything in particular and he leaned back on his hands. “It’s like your people find ways to get angry and start wars for no reason but to break the peace.”

“That definitely sounds like us.”

Eren ignored Levi.

“You have so many things that we couldn’t possibly imagine, and yet you take them for granted. Cures for illnesses, a way to stop hunger and pain, technology we couldn’t possibly begin to imagine and you are free! You have the whole world and more! You’ve even reached for the moon! And yet…” his fists balled up in anger. “And yet you can’t seem to keep yourselves from hating one another.”

Levi sighed and laid back, head resting on his arms, and closed his eyes.

“That’s humans for you, every human, not just ‘my people’ or ‘this world’. We’re evil, as if we are a disease ourselves. We take but we still want more, always, never satisfied. We take things for granted because we only realize how important things are for us when we lose them.”

Levi could feel Eren’s gaze burning him but he didn’t open his eyes. He kept talking.

“But that’s also what makes us great, bizarre as it may seem; we have no boundaries and when people unite there’s nothing that can stop them. We are constantly learning and yes, we massively fuck shit up but we can also fix them; it’s a long path. We may have reached for the moon but the stars around it seem even more dazzling. And we want them too.”

Levi felt his cheeks burning from his words and he opened his eyes tentatively and fixed them on Eren, who seemed to have a lump on his throat. He heard him swallow, as if trying to hold back tears. When he spoke, his voice was not loud but his fury was evident.

“Why can’t we do all that without so many people suffering? Humans shouldn’t be enemies to each other, I’ve dealt with that shit enough in my other life time.”

“That’s who we are, wicked beings trying to surpass their own nature. Some people manage to do it and the others… well…”

“If you don’t fight you can’t win.” Eren aggressively wiped his nose to his sleeve. “That’s what I used to say all the fucking time but what’s the point? Everything turns to shit again eventually, one way or another.”

“The point is that there’s always something worth fighting for, even if it seems insignificant.” He pointed to the window. “Maybe you want to save the world so that cat can continue grooming itself in peace or maybe there’s that nice lady that sells cupcakes on the street when it’s sunny and sometimes you see her sneaking one to give to a child whose parents can’t afford to buy them one and you would do _anything_ to make sure she continues living her life with kindness in her heart. Have you never felt like that?”

Eren’s expression softened and he pulled a loose thread on the blanket, twisting it around on his fingers. “I have.”

“And this is why you fight, no matter how hard or impossible it seems. No matter how small you think your actions are, they _always_ matter. This why we don’t give up.”

“Oh, Levi.” Eren yanked the string from the blanket and held it tight on his fist, letting the tears fall freely. “Thank you.”

Levi got up and stretched, reaching for the paper tissues and handing them to Eren.

“Come on, wipe your eyes, that was too much thinking for one day, let’s do something fun. I bet you’ll love video games.”

Eren got up after blowing his nose with a hearty and loud sound. 

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about but I’m certain I’ll love anything if you’re with me.”

Levi decided it was for the best to ignore what Eren said no matter how weird it made him feel.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a light on the horizon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this is mostly a filler chapter and it's really.... short... but hey! at least I'm updating.  
> I promise I'll try writing longer chapters from now on. Keyword: _try_.  
>  As always, I wrote the entire chapter while crying.
> 
> Any feedback is appreciated and I feed on comments.
> 
> (This is unbeta’d so if there’s any mistake please let me know.)

Time went by surprisingly quickly and, before any of them had noticed it, three weeks had passed since they had found Eren on the underground cave.

The boy had moved from Levi’s bedroom floor to the living room’s worn, but comfortable, couch and he had finally acquired some clothes that fit him properly, worming his way into the Ackerman’s daily routine. He usually stayed at home while Levi was at school and Kuchel at work, and had taken to tending to the house to pass the time; he did the dishes and cleaned the house.

Kuchel kept telling him it that he didn’t have to do any kind of chores but Levi knew her words were empty as she was secretly thankful, since Levi’s help wasn’t nearly enough to take most of the burden off of her back. She seemed less tired and had a different bounce on her step and Levi found her humming to herself more often than not.

Eren sometimes also insisted on cooking and both Kuchel and Levi were marveled to find he was amazing at it, “my mother’s recipe!” he always said, with a nostalgic smile.

On the weekends, Levi always dragged Hanji and Erwin to his house and they would spend whole days showing Eren around, taking him to the movies and explaining to him how things worked; he didn’t need help when using a computer anymore and Erwin had gotten him a phone so he was always reachable, saying it was laying around in his house but Levi had noticed how new and shiny it looked. Hanji got into the habit of lending him books and more books about every subject they found interesting and Levi’s room was littered with old pages everywhere, that Eren absorbed as if they were holy.

Little by little, Eren was beginning to adapt to the new world around him, even if a million thoughts still plagued him when he slowed down for more than a second.

 ---

Levi practically ran to his front door, trying to avoid the downpour as much as possible, searching through his pockets to find his keys. He opened the door and immediately shed his drenched jacket and put his backpack down, closing the door with his foot, not wanting to imagine how ruined his notebooks and books were. But it wasn’t something he needed to worry too soon, anyhow, since he was finally on Christmas vacation.

“Eren, I’m home!” he shouted as usual. “Can you bring me a towel please, I’m dripping everywhere and I don’t want to move.”

He waited, shivering, cold water running down his back and his tight, damp jeans clinging even more to his skin, but no response came.

“Eren?” he tried again, but still no luck. He probably had fallen asleep with a book on his face again, the sound of rain hitting the windows was like an off trigger to him.

Levi splashed to his bedroom, cursing under his breath and leaving a wet trail behind him. He grabbed his pajamas and sprinted to the bathroom, eager to get out of his soaked clothes and almost losing his teeth to the floor more than once. He quickly got into the shower, welcoming the hot water on his chilled body.

“Eren, you lazy fuck, I really needed your help there,” He said, with no real spite, when he entered the living room, twenty minutes later, already showered, towel around his neck and expecting to see the boy sprawled out on the couch. However, there was no one there to greet him with a head full of cowlicks.

He went to the kitchen, did a double take on his own room and even went to his mother’s room, a place where Eren had never set foot, but he was nowhere to be found. With growing concern, Levi called his new phone, only to be greeted with the ringtone coming from in between the couch’s cushions. Sighing, he sent a text to the chat he shared with both Hanji and Erwin; maybe he had gone to one of their houses.

However, not even ten seconds later, Hanji was texting back, telling him that they had not seen Eren anywhere. Levi dropped the phone on his bed and sighed in frustration, rubbing his eyes without really knowing what to do, before straightening his back, scoffing.

He was overreacting, to say the least, Eren was not his prisoner and he could go out anytime he wanted, not to mention he already knew his way around town and he would never get lost. There was really nothing Levi could do or had any right to do.

Even if it meant Eren was out in the rain alone.

And it was dark already.

He moped around the house for a while, staring out of the windows, in hopes of seeing a head full of shaggy brown hair approaching the house, but with no luck.

As he was preparing to sink his worries and go start dinner, the front door opened and he heard the jiggle of keys. He practically jumped out of his bed and ran to the hall.

So much for not worrying.

Eren was absolutely soaked to the skin, boots caked with mud and grass, hair sticking to his forehead. He looked at Levi like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Hi Levi.” He raised a hand in a half assed greeting and Levi inhaled sharply, trying not to lose his temper. “It sure is raining a lot.”

“I’ve noticed it. And you’re ruining the rug.” He decided it was for the best not to mention that he had also been in that same position roughly an hour before.

“Oh sorry,” he made mention of taking a step forward but Levi stopped him.

“No, don’t move. Take off your clothes, you’re jumping into the shower right now, I’ll get you your pajamas.”

The older boy nodded and slowly discarded his clothes on the floor, wincing at the cold fabric rubbing on him and clumsily made his way to the bathroom.

Eren didn’t say anything about going out alone (“he didn’t have to, he didn’t have to” Levi kept trying to remind himself), even after Kuchel had arrived home to find the two teenagers strangely quiet, sitting on opposite ends of the couch, staring at the TV without really paying attention to what’s on.

He was already on his bed, later at night, when Eren knocked on his door and proceeded to promptly sit down at the end of it, without bothering to turn on the lights.

“Sorry for going out without telling anyone, I was actually supposed to arrive before you did so you wouldn’t notice but then the rain started pouring like that and it took me a lot more time to get home.”

Levi leaned up on his elbow, “You don’t have to announce to everyone that you’re going out, just start taking your phone with you so we can contact you.”

“You’re not mad?” it was difficult to make out his expression in the dark and his voice tone gave nothing away.

“Why would I be, you’re an adult Eren, you can do whatever you want. Like, shit, you’re older than me, if anything, you should be the one babysitting me.”

“It was still thoughtless of me. I live in your house, I eat your food and well, I’m not exactly from around here.” Levi heard him shift on the bed and the next time he spoke, he sounded closer. “I want to tell you what I’ve been doing in these past few days, this wasn’t the first time I’ve gone out. I just didn’t expect to do it so soon.”

Levi stayed motionless for a while, before stretching his arm and lightning up his bedside lamp, finding Eren sitting with crisscrossed legs, face leaning on his hand and green eyes looking intensely at Levi as if he had been seeing him all that time despite the darkness.

“All right, tell me.”

“I’ve been trying to find my sister.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erwin likes to bake, some things are discovered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another filler chapter? Maybe? I don't know but this is a mess.  
> But on a more positive note, we'll get started on the real plot on the next chapter!  
> Of course, as always, I wrote the entire chapter while crying.
> 
> Any feedback is appreciated and I feed on comments, yum yum.
> 
> (This is unbeta’d so if there’s any mistake please let me know.)

“Sorry, I think I misheard you.” Levi stared at Eren in disbelief.

“Yeah, you probably didn’t.” Eren scratched his nose, his eyes averting Levi’s. “I’m really looking for my sister. I figured since you, Hanji and Erwin are here why wouldn’t she also be?”

Levi squinted a little, as if trying to arrange his thoughts. “We don’t even know if that’s how it works Eren. This reincarnation thing still seems like bullshit to be honest.”

“Hey! What then? Is this just a huge coincidence? Seems even less probable!” he crossed his arms, his eyes challenging. Levi sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Look, I’m not telling you it’s impossible, I just don’t want you to get your hopes up because it’s very improbable you’ll find her!”

“Of course I know that Levi, but I still want to try!”

“Alright.” He paused, adjusting the covers around him, and motioning to Eren to slip under them. “You never told me about your sister, I would like to know more about her.”

Eren crawled under the blankets, squeezed between the other boy and the wall, settling against the pillows with a soft smile and closed eyes. “She was one of the people I loved the most. I still do.”

“She was intelligent, strong and so, so brave. The most beautiful woman I have ever seen.” He crossed his arms behind his head unware Levi was watching him the whole time. “Wait, no, the second most beautiful woman, the first was my mother. I’d do anything to see her again Levi.”

He cracked open an eye to look at the boy, who quickly pretended to be busy examining his nails, clearing his throat, “For all it’s worth, I hope we do.”

Eren adjusted himself on the bed, bringing the blankets up to his chin and closing his eyes, “Yeah.”

“Who told you could sleep here?” Levi smacked him lightly with a pillow but Eren only laughed and both of them settled down for the night.

\---

“Hmm,” Hanji let themselves fall back on the rug, a pensive look on their face.

They were sitting on the floor of Erwin’s living room, eating cookies he had baked when Hanji first called him to tell him they were spending the afternoon at his place. His parents were both working and they could do as much noise as they wanted, without bothering Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

“I mean, it’s possible that your sister is out there if we are too, there’s just something that’s been bothering me,” both Erwin and Eren looked at them in anticipation while Levi, laying down on the couch, propped his head on his hand, “You tell me both and you and your sister were twenty and we were veterans on the Scouting Legion right? We were on our thirties?”

“Levi was 39 when he-“ Eren cleared his throat and all of them pretended not to see the shadow that passed through his eyes, “I’m not sure about Erwin’s age but he was a year or two older than Levi, and Hanji was the same age as Levi. I don’t get how is this relevant to Mikasa?”

“Right, so, Hanji and Levi were nineteen years older than you and Mikasa,” Hanji pushed their glasses up absent mindedly, “Which means, since we are eighteen right now, she wouldn’t even be born yet.”

None of them said a word for what it seemed more than an hour, avoiding looking directly to Eren, but they could all imagine the crestfallen expression, that sliver of hope taken away.

“Hey, it doesn’t have to be that way. Let’s all remember that none of this makes any logical sense, and we still have no idea why this is happening and how,” Erwin was the first one to speak, his warm voice loud against the soft whip of the rain on the windows. 

“Well, that’s true, yeah, he’s right!” Hanji sat up and gave an encouraging smile to Eren, who seemed to have significantly decreased in size.

“Social networks,” Levi got up from the couch, making a beeline for the corridor that led to the inner part of the house, where the bedrooms were, “Erwin, I’m borrowing your laptop.”

“What kind of teenagers are we that we actually forgot social networks are a thing for a moment here?” Hanji slammed a palm down on the center table and threw their head back laughing, more of relief than of actual humor.

“Oh, social networks? That thing Erwin was explaining , called, huh, facesbook? Where you can keep contact with your friends.” 

“ _Facebook_ ,” Levi corrected, returning to the living room with the computer and plopping down on the floor next to his friends. They were now all around the center table, laptop in the middle, “But yeah, that’s one of them.”

“If your sister is out there, she probably has an account in at least one of these.”

Eren crinkled his nose up, “I don’t think she would be the type to expose herself like that, to be honest,”

“Hey, optimism!” Hanji said, picking up the last cookie from the plate, “Let’s give it a try.”

“What’s her last name?” Erwin pried his laptop from Levi, who had already turned it on and had been organizing the desktop and putting everything neatly into different folders.

“Ackerman,” Eren noticed the puzzled looks of the other three teenagers, “Oh yeah, long story, she had the same last name as Levi but they weren’t related. We thought so too for a while.”

Erwin typed on the keyboard under the attentive eyes of the others, “What does she look like? It should be easier to spot if we all know her appearance.” 

“She’s Asian, black, straight and long hair, dark and narrow eyes, she almost never smiles. Huh, thin eyebrows? I don’t know, she’s very pretty,”

Hanji chuckled and they all pressed together, concentrated on the screen, scrolling through what seemed millions of girls and different faces, but none of them were Eren’s sister. They abandoned _Facebook_ after an hour, switching to _Twitter_ , trying different username combinations, with no luck. They had already tried _YouTube_ , _Tumblr_ and were finally giving a quick comb through _Instagram_.

“Who knew Mikasa Ackerman was such a common name?” Hanji returned from the kitchen with more of Erwin’s peanut butter cookies and mugs of lemon tea. They handed one of the mugs to a very disheartened Eren, that had been quiet for a long time as if he had started to lose hope. He took the mug with a muffled ‘thanks’ and watched the liquid swirl around.

“Hey,” Levi pushed Eren’s chin up with a finger, “Even if we don’t find her online, she might still be out there. Even if she hasn’t been born yet, one day you’ll be on the line of the supermarket, bored out of your fucking mind, and then you’ll see her, shiny hair in front of you.”

Eren gave a small, slightly crooked smiled, making Levi’s heart flutter and he quickly removed his finger from Eren’s face, “Thanks Levi, at least I won’t-“

Hanji interrupted him, pushing Erwin violently to the side and almost knocking boiling hot tea on themselves, “Hey Eren! What’s your last name?!”

“Jaeger, why?”

“Erwin, click on that one, related searches, no, on the left side, Mikasa Jaeger!” 

Erwin moved Hanji’s pony tail out of the way so he could see the screen and did what they had told him, “Is this her Eren?”

The webpage took what it seemed an eternity to load, the teenagers holding their breaths, but when it did, Eren too hopped on top of Erwin.

“Holy shit!! It’s her!” He yelled, not caring that Erwin was practically being crushed below him, “It’s her! It’s Mikasa, my sister, you found her!” he grabbed all three of them in a tight hug, Levi’s head squeezed against his chest, making it hard to breathe. 

“She certainly doesn’t look like your description,” Levi pointed out, head peeking from atop Eren’s arm; the girl on the photo did have black hair, but it was cut short, in a styled undercut and she had a dangerous, wide side grin as she did a peace sign.

“Yeah Eren, and you failed to mention she’s smoking hot, damn,” Hanji freed themselves from the hug and finally got out of Erwin’s lap (humph!”) and pulled the laptop towards them, “‘Mikasa Jaeger, twenty-one, lesbian, writer & game designer’ it’s what says on the description. She’s also like, super famous, almost twenty thousand followers on _Instagram_!”

“She has my last name, that has to mean that she has been adopted by my parents again and it means I might be able to see them! I might see my mother!” 

“It does seem that luck is on our side this time,” Erwin pushed Eren out of his lap gently and he slid to the floor like goop. He was still holding Levi close and the younger boy was ready to die of embarrassment at any minute.

Eren hadn’t stopped smiling since they had seen Mikasa on the screen, his eyes fixed on the photos of his sister’s feed, “Can you open that one picture?”

Hanji nodded and opened a photograph where she was on the pier Eren and Levi had visited, her face buried in a fluffy, bright red scarf. The caption on the photo was ‘forever missing you’ with a broken heart and somehow it made Eren’s eyes fill up with tears, “When we were little I wrapped my old red scarf around her, on the night when my parents took her in,”

Erwin frowned before his bright blues eyes widened in recognition, “You think she might still remember you?”

“Hanji, is all this possible?” Levi pried himself from Eren’s arms and moved from the floor back to the couch, wanting to get away from Eren, his cheeks still red and his heart still beating fast.

Hanji pushed their glasses up as they always did when they were getting serious, “I have no facts, only theories, this whole situation is still too abstract. I mean, we all feel a certain familiarity towards Eren, it’s like he’s that kid we used to play with on the swing set by the park when we were five and somehow thought he would be our friend forever,”

“And Mikasa spent almost her entire life, huh, previous life, by Eren’s side, taking risks with heavy emotional impact so,” they got up from the rug and stretched, their bones cracking, “if, and that’s a big _if,_ Erwin is right and we are actually reincarnated, her connection to Eren and to her past life could be a lot stronger than ours so I think it is possible that she remembers, at least fragments of what she went through,”

“Does it say something about where she lives?” Levi didn’t wait for an answer and took, once more, the laptop to himself. His three friends joined him on the couch almost immediately, “Wow, she certainly posts a lot of selfies,”

Both Erwin and Hanji slapped his arm, “She’s beautiful, let her live,”

“As if being beautiful has to do something with taking lots of selfies. I do and I look like this,” Hanji motioned to their face.

“But Hanji, you are beautiful!” Eren looked very offended from his place, squished between Erwin and the armrest.

“Ah, Eren, you’re a sweet-“

“Shiganshina,” Levi suddenly exclaimed, interrupting the sugar dripping conversation “She lives in Shiganshina,”

Eren crawled once more to plop himself on Erwin’s lap (“seriously, do I look like a couch?!”), smiling softly, “I was born in Shiganshina, and that’s where we lived most of our childhood, before the fall of Wall Maria,” he leaned back to rest his head on Erwin’s shoulder with a face full of expectations.

“Well, I guess we have plans for tomorrow!” Hanji slammed the laptop shut, making Levi wince, “Shiganshina isn’t very far, we take my car and we make it a road trip, it’ll be fun!”

“I guess I better warn my mother,” Levi rested comfortably against the leather of the sofa and tucked his legs underneath him, trying not to think of the hours he’d have to spend closed in a tight space with Eren.

“I’ll make some sandwiches to take, maybe a cake?” Erwin crossed his arms around Eren and the older boy turned to look at all of them.

“Are you guys really doing this for me?”

Hanji extended their hand, palm down, “Of course, we’re a team now, we’ll finish this adventure together,”

“You mean we all got on this fucking mess together,” Levi sighed but placed his hand atop Hanji’s, followed by Erwin’s.

Eren smiled, his face wet again, but this time with happy tears.

“Yeah!” he cleaned his nose on his sleeve and completed their team hand-stack.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the gang goes to shiganshina.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, so, i realize it has been eighty years since the last update but _a lot_ of shit has been happening in my life.  
>  i won't get into many details but my father passed away and i got a job and then eventually left it and it's been a mess. still, i'm sorry for posting this so late.
> 
> well then, it's a short chapter and i know i promised some more content but we're getting there. i decided not to drop this fic no matter what so just bare with me please!  
> as always, I wrote the entire chapter while crying. any feedback is appreciated and I feed on comments, yum yum.
> 
> this is unbeta’d (also i couldn't bare to look at it anymore) so if there’s any mistake please let me know.

Eren woke up an hour earlier than planned, excitement and nerves rippling through his body, like ocean waves. He looked at the time on his phone and groaned as he let himself fall back on the pillows, to try to fall asleep again. Yet, the million and one thoughts running on his head had other plans. 

Realizing it would be impossible to get more rest, he got up from his make shift bed on the living room’s couch, folding the blankets neatly before stuffing them in a cabinet next to the television. 

He took a quick shower despite having taken one the night before, since Levi hated that he went to sleep without showering, but he felt like he needed to be at his best. He got dressed, putting on layers of warm clothes, before making his way to the kitchen, surprised to see its lights on.

Kuchel was sitting at the table, her reading glasses on, concentrated on a book, with a mug of coffee placed in front of her.

“Good morning Eren, you’re up early!” she put down the book and took off her glasses, before checking the time on the clock placed on the wall above the door, “It’s barely six,”

“Hey, good morning, couldn’t sleep anymore,” he gave a faint smile and pushed his sleeves up, “Have you eaten yet? I can make you something,”

“Hmm, you’re a treat, I’d love some very cheesy toast,” she beamed, tucking her legs under herself, observing as the boy moved around, picking up the ingredients.

“Why are already up?” 

“I always wake up at five to go to work Eren, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed,” Kuchel laughed, getting up to fetch more coffee, “I leave for work at six-thirty.”

“Goddesses, I didn’t know, I must seem like an idiot,” he stopped working on the sandwiches to look at her, a faint blush on his cheeks, “I’m sorry, I should have payed more attention, no wonder why you’re always so tired, you hardly sleep,”

She laughed, getting back on the chair and sipping on the coffee, “Don’t be silly, it’s not really that important, you always get up hours after me and I bet you have other things on your mind other than my sleep pattern,” she paused, lifting her eyebrows, “I hope so, anyway,”

“I do but still, shows how attentive I actually am,” Eren set a plate of toast dripping with melted cheese in front of her, “Here you go,”

“Thank you!”

Eren prepared his own plate and they ate in silence for a while, before Kuchel spoke again,

“Where are you guys going exactly today?”

“Oh, Shinganshina,”

“Nice, I haven’t been there in years,” She finished her toast, licking her index finger, “Why the sudden interest in it? It’s pretty but not very interesting,”

“I, huh, wanted to get to know the nearby towns, and since it’s only three hours away…” he smiled nervously, avoiding Kuchel’s eyes; he had never been much of a liar, “Erwin suggested since he knows it pretty well and Hanji said they’d take us there,”

“Ah, I see,” She got up, placing her plate and mug on the sink, “Look, Eren, cutting down on the bullshit, I know there’s something you aren’t telling me,”

Eren felt his entire being, down to his very core, freezing despite the warmth of the house.

“You’re hiding something,” before he could say anything, she held up a finger, gray eyes fixed on Eren’s very soul, “But, as I told you before, I trust my son, so I won’t pry. I just wanted to tell you that you can trust me if you ever need to,”

“It’s just…,” Eren sighed, knowing there was no point on keeping the lie, “Kuchel, I wish I could tell you, I really do but I’m afraid I’ll just sound crazy and you’ve been so kind,” He got up, looking down at Kuchel but feeling a thousand times smaller, “I’m not even entirely sure I’m not actually crazy,”

“Uh, aren’t we all a little crazy though?” she grabbed Eren’s hand and brought it down to her lips, kissing it softly, “I’m here nonetheless,”

She made her way to the hallway, picking up the coat and scarf that had been on a kitchen chair, “Tell Levi I love him, tell Hanji to drive safely and tell Erwin to save me a piece of whatever he cooks for your trip. Have fun!”

And without another word, Kuchel went out, making sure the wind didn’t slam the front door.

\---

“Fuck, it’s cold,” Levi’s face was almost completely hidden below the layers of clothes he was wearing, face buried in a scarf, “Why is it so cold, it’s fucking raining, it should be warmer than yesterday!”

“Because you just got out of a warm bed, I told you to wake up earlier,” Eren locked down the door, “Is everything in order, did you lock the windows and turned everything off?”

“Yes, _mother_ ,” his back was turned, busy giving the finger to Hanji that wouldn’t stop honking, but Eren could bet he was rolling his eyes. He was enjoying this fresher, “new” version of Levi too much.

“Let’s go then,” they sprinted to the car, parked in front of the house, to avoid the rain, quickly throwing their bags to the unlocked trunk.

“Good morning!” Erwin greeted from the front sit, looking as if he had been run over by a truck, eye bags pronounced, blond hair heavily tousled.

“Ahaha, jesus Levi I can barely see your eyes!” Hanji laughed turning around on the driver’s seat, “It’s not that cold,”

“Fuck off,” was the muffled reply.

“Alright my good lads, let’s get this adventure going!” Hanji smiled, clicking on the buttons of the old car radio, “Seatbelts on!”

Levi groaned again and said something that none of them could understand since his face was completely covered by his scarf.

Eren smiled and was about to make a witty remark when he suddenly realized who was actually in front of him and looked away, pretending to busy himself with the seatbelt, conflicting emotions bubbling up in the pit of his stomach.

That wasn’t captain Levi.

He swallowed the lump on his throat, feeling it burn and wondering if someone had remembered to pack some water bottles.

“-Eren?” Erwin’s voice brought him back and he realized they were already on the road and Erwin had been speaking.

“Sorry, I was distracted.”

“I asked if you wanted something to eat, I brought snacks,”

“Oh, no thanks, I ate breakfast,”

“I always forget to eat breakfast!” Hanji announced, and their stomach audibly groaned as if on cue.

“Yeah, that’s why I _always_ bring snacks, _someone_ has to plan ahead,” Erwin chuckled, breaking a piece from a sandwich and feeding it to Hanji so they wouldn’t have to take their hands off the steering wheel, much to their annoyance.

“Wait, I had cereal and I didn’t see you eat,” Levi sat up on his seat, finally taking off his scarf, shaking his head slightly so his hair would fall into place.

“Oh yeah, I had breakfast with your mother,” Eren said, recalling her words, “and well, it was weird.”

“What did old Kuchel do this time?” Erwin said and Levi threw a used paper tissue at him, that he avoided by slipping on his seat. 

Eren proceeded to re-tell what Kuchel had said in the tiny kitchen, trying to remember her exact words.

“Hey Levi, have you ever thought about the possibility of your mother being a witch?” Hanji finally let out, looking very serious.

“She knows _everything_!” Levi nodded in agreement as if also considering the possibility, scratching absent-mindedly at his chin.

“I hope we can tell her about all this soon,” Erwin said, pensively, scrunching up the empty sandwich wrapper.

“Yeah,” Eren sighed and rested his head on his hand, watching at the scenery running by on the window, “maybe one day,”

\--

“-ren!” someone had been shaking him slightly and he felt like he was falling before abruptly opening his eyes, realizing he was gliding to the floor of the car.

“Damn, that was some deep sleep!” Hanji cackled from the driver’s seat, struggling to put their jacket on.

“Have we arrived yet?” Eren rubbed his eye, surprising a yawn, “That was quick,”

“It wasn’t, it’s almost midday,” Levi said, already opening the door, buried again under his jacket and scarf.

“Oh,” The car’s trunk closed abruptly making him jump and Erwin appeared on his window carrying all of their backpacks.

Eren got out of the car and stretched, feeling his bones crack pleasantly as Hanji checked if all the doors were locked.

“Welcome to Shinganshina!” Erwin handed him his backpack with a soft smile and Eren mumbled a “thanks” before looking around. 

All the buildings were small and mostly made of smooth stone and wood but, no matter how much he squinted around, he did not recognize anything as it looked nothing like the place he once called home.

It had stopped raining but the wind was sharp and it bit at their skin like tiny razor blades. The sky was dark and grey, casting a slumbering, eerie shadow blanket over the town. Everything seemed numb, lonely, and Eren couldn’t help but think the atmosphere itself was mimicking his own feelings.

He wondered if the journey had been a mistake.

“I promise it’s much prettier in spring, when the flowers are blooming,” Erwin touched his shoulder, as if he had read Eren’s mind.

“Bitch, I’m freezing, it’s colder than Trost here, ” Hanji hopped from one foot to another, rubbing their hands together, shattering Eren’s bubble, “Please, let’s find a decent restaurant and warm up!”

They were all quick to agree, staying close together and following Erwin, who knew the small town quite well.

The place they wound up in was called _The Hungry Canteen_ , and Erwin swore they had the best steaks in the whole world. The whole area was lined with wooden panels and the booths were covered with a deep red velvet like material, a fireplace crackling in the furthermost wall, giving it a very cozy ambience. The restaurant was almost full, people running away from the cold, taking advantage of their lunch breaks to have some decent food.

They sat near the window, watching the rainfall, basking in the warmth of the hidden heaters and the lively chatter around them.

“I sure hope you didn’t bring us to an expensive restaurant because I have, like, five _eldias_ in my wallet?” Hanji side eyed Erwin, stuffing bread and olives in their mouth.

Levi snorted and Erwin just rolled his eyes, discretely checking the prices on the menu.

The waitress who served them was cheerful and pleasant and the food was, indeed, delicious. They all ate so much they had to wait for almost an hour before finally leaving the restaurant (without any of them having to wash dishes).

Joyful and with satisfied stomachs, they returned to Hanji’s car so they could check Mikasa’s _Instagram_ account again, for a solid clue on her location. They pooled up in the narrow back seat, eyes focused on the phone Hanji was holding, open in the picture of Mikasa in a backyard, captioned with “ _shinganshina, finally home_ ”.

“It looks like a generic backyard you could find literally anywhere,” Levi scratched his chin, squinting at the picture in hopes of noticing a detail, any detail that would tell them know where her house was.

“Shinganshina is small enough that, if we ask around, we’ll probably find her,” Erwin said, already opening the car’s door, tightening his jacket and scarf, “But there’s no use sitting around doing nothing, we have to start searching now, before nightfall, or else we’ll have to return home empty-handed and having wasted a trip,”

Without another word, he left the car, quickly followed by his friends, who decided it was best to give Mikasa’s pictures a rest.

However, the plan sounded better in their heads; the locals were, understandably, very used to people asking about the famous game designer, so they just kept walking or shook their heads at them.

They got a similar reaction from the shopkeepers, as they refused to tell them where she lived, going as far as saying they didn’t know her (which could also be true, in some cases).

“Are you sure you don’t know where Mikasa Ackerman lives?” Hanji slid some money on the counter, towards the exhausted looking old man, as they wiggled their eyebrows at him to indicate that, indeed, they were trying to bribe him. 

Levi, Erwin and Eren were awkwardly browsing the chips aisle, trying to blend in on the hideous, patterned floor of the tiny store, as if they had nothing to do with Hanji.

“Look, girl,” the shopkeeper sighed and Hanji flinched, their friend’s heads whipping around, almost in sync, to glare at the man, “I don’t know who that is but even if I did I wouldn’t tell you, you’re a suspicious bunch,” he pointed to the three boys.

“So, if you aren’t going to buy anything, I suggest you leave before I have to call the police,”

\---

“We’re fucked,” Hanji leaned against the bar of the swing set, holding the can of soda they had ended up buying.

They were bunched up in an empty children’s park, disappointment obvious on their faces and coldness seeping through their layers.

“We _really_ did not think this through,” Erwin sighed, crossing his arms, and looking at the darkening sky, “How could we forget she’s famous and there’s probably people coming in here asking for her on a daily basis?”

Hanji sipped loudly on their drink, before burping, “Yep, that was kind of stupid, I’m blaming you Erwin, it was your suggestion, after all,”

“It was the only suggestion, Hanji, what the hell did you expect us to do?”

“I don’t know, something that could actually work?”

“By all means, if you have a better idea, let’s hear it,” He stood in front of them, aggravation evident on his face,

“Hey, you’re the one that always comes up with the strategies, you’re-“

“Guys!” Levi, who had been silent since they had left the store, interrupted their banter, making a movement towards Eren with his head, “Have some sensibility,”

They both shut up, eyes diverting to the older boy, who had removed himself from the others and was currently kicking the sand of the playground, apparently making a hole on the ground.

Levi briefly wondered if he planned to crawl there once it was finished.

“We need a miracle,” Hanji whispered, furiously squashing the empty can on their hands, “Like, immediately right now,”

“I can’t stand to see him like that,” Erwin agreed, digging out his phone from his pocket to search Mikasa’s profiles yet again, “Let me see if there’s an update or something,”

“If all else fails, I’m ready to go fucking stand in the square’s center and just yell her name until she hears it,”

“Levi scoffed, “I bet she would run in the opposite direction if you did that,”

“Ah!” Erwin suddenly said, loudly and with a triumphant look on his face, “I got us the miracle we needed!”

Hanji and Levi hastily leaned on Erwin, eager eyes on his phone, “What did you find? Do you have her address?”

“Nope,” he politely detached himself from his two wide-eyed friends and dropped his phone on his pocket, starting to make his way out of the park, “She literally just went up the street so we better run if we want to catch her!”

“Holy shit, Eren, come on!!” Hanji screamed, catching the boy unware and making him jump, already following Erwin in a rapid jog.

Levi didn’t even bother looking back to see if Eren was following them, he too running up the stony road, heart beating fast, wishing with all of his being that Erwin’s vision wasn’t going bad or his enthusiasm wasn’t playing tricks on his mind.

However, when he and Hanji finally reached Erwin, huffing, he had already stricken a conversation with the stunning girl, proud smile dancing on his lips.

It really was her.

“Mikasa!” Hanji shouted, breathless and dangerously looking like they were going to jump her. Levi grabbed her arm, just in case.

“More fans?” was the first thing they heard her say, her voice soft and quiet, with a slight hint of fatigue.

“Well, that was what I was trying to explain before my loud friends got here, we might have an odd request for you,” Erwin re-took the lead, catching Mikasa’s attention again, “There’s someone we’d like for you to meet,”

“Huh, okay,” her dark eyes were reduced to a slit, apprehension clear in them, hands tightening on the grocery bags she was carrying.

Levi concluded that ganging up on a celebrity on their way home, in a dark, empty street wasn’t the best way to make them comfortable. Who knew.

But before he could say anything to put her at ease, a voice emerged from behind them, angry and wheezy. 

“Hey, what in the world happened, you just left me alone there, I went the wrong way and I almost got lost, you guys seemed completely out of your minds, you just started running like madmen, seriously, did I do some-”

He stopped talking when he saw his friends smiling lovingly at him, eyes so bright they made the pinkness of the sunset on the horizon seem bland in comparison.

“Mikasa,” Erwin said, raising a hand to point at the flabbergasted boy in front of them, “this is the guy we wanted you to meet, his name is-“

“Eren!” she cried, before promptly dropping her bags with a loud _‘thump!’_ and launching herself into his arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Have any comment, question or suggestion? Drop me a message [here](http://zaevran.tumblr.com/) on my tumblr.  
> Thanks for reading!


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